Ghost Hunting Does Not Work Like This
by Green Kneesocks
Summary: Mob and Reigen exorcise a love hotel...and find love themselves. Fem!Mob. Same age AU. Established relationship. Post separate ways arc.


Mob had no idea what she was doing there.

There being this big, purple, supposedly haunted building. Taka said that it might have been haunted, he was the one supposing, but Mob knew that it wasn't. She could tell just from standing outside. It felt like any other building in the city, any other non-haunted building in the city. She and Taka did occasionally go to places that were actually haunted sometimes but this was not one of those times. This was just a regular building, that was all, just a normal building in a normal part of the city on a normal night.

"Come on, Mob, let's check it out. Time's a wastin'!" He said. He took her hand while he said that and started to pull her forwards. She shook her head.

"This place doesn't feel haunted, Taka." Said Mob. This was just a normal building. Well it was normal in the not haunted sense. It was bright purple, this building, which was probably why they called it 'the Purple Palace'. Also it looked like a castle, but that part wasn't so normal. Aside from the fact that it was a big purple castle looking building it was normal. This whole thing was normal.

This was what she and Taka usually did on a Friday night.

This was what she and her boyfriend usually did on a Friday night.

"You never know until you look! We haven't recorded anything in a while and we can't monetize our channel unless we get more views and we can't get more views unless we make more content and nobody is going to subscribe! Then what'll we do for money? What I ask you!?" said Taka. He did that thing where he shouted and moved his hands a lot but he wasn't mad. Mob smiled as he finished.

"We could get jobs." Said Mob. He shook his head.

"No way are we getting boring old nine to five, die at your desk, hate every moment of your life jobs! This is our calling, Mob! God gave us these powers, gave you these powers, to be used for good!" He said. He was about to say that they both had powers, but that was a lie, so he didn't say it. Mob was glad that he was done lying to her. She didn't want them to fight again…and those things that people had been saying about him on the internet were really mean….but that part was over now. They had made up.

They had kissed and made up.

And it had been the greatest moment of her life.

It had been better than even when they first met, when she finally thought that she had met someone like her. He had been pretending to have psychic powers, he said that it was because of middle school syndrome, but for a time she had thought that she had finally met another human being like herself. Then they started hanging out and started their business, a Youtube channel with eleven followers, had a fight, made up, and now everything was fine.

Also they kissed.

And now he was her boyfriend.

"Ok. We can go in but I'm telling you that I can't feel anything." Said Mob

"Nothing? There's nothing at all 'special' about this building?" he asked with a look that she could not place. She was bad at reading people, the most clueless person in the world people told her, and he was no exception. Just when she thought that she understood him he went and made a face that she had never seen him make before.

"Um…it's purple?" asked Mob. It was big and purple and the outside looked like a castle. There were lots of cool looking places in that neighborhood. There was a building that looked like a spaceship and a building that looked like one of those old wooden country mansions and one that Mob didn't even know what it was supposed to look like.

"Nothing else? There's nothing special at all about this particular hotel?" Taka asked again. His voice got kind of weird there. Mob didn't know what he meant so she just shrugged. He took her hand and pulled her close. She leans into him and closes her eyes expecting him to kiss her again. They kissed at least once a day, sometimes more if they had the time and the privacy, which they so rarely did. Ritsu usually followed them around, he didn't like Taka for some reason, but Ritsu was off with Sho doing something that Mob didn't know what it was but it wasn't within her range so whatever it was it was good. That meant that she and Taka could be alone and hold hands and kiss and cuddle. Like now. They could have been kissing and cuddling at the park or by the river.

Or right here.

But he didn't kiss her. He just leaned in super close, so close that she could feel his breath against the shell of her ear, and stayed there for a moment. Mob couldn't move, she couldn't breathe, she just stood there leaning into him. She leaned so far forward on her toes that she thought that she could have tipped over at any time. But she did not tip over. She leaned into his chest. She could feel him breathing, feel his heart beating maybe just as fast as hers was. He exhaled. As his breath hit her ear she broke out in goose flesh.

"It's a love hotel." Said Take slowly and lowly. The kind of slow and low that Mob felt from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes. It made a long stop, though, right in the middle of her. Right there.

"T-Taka….?" Asked Mob. This was….she had wanted this. Not this place specifically but she had wanted this. She had wanted this with Taka since before they got together. She had spent so many nights tossing and turning in bed thinking about this…

And now it was happening.

"If you don't want to…not that we'll do anything! I mean…we don't have to do THAT. We don't. We don't have to do more than kiss…and we don't even have to do that. We can do whatever you're comfortable with." Said Taka. Mob thought that it was an awful lot to put on her. Why did she have to be the one to decide this…this big thing? This really big thing that…that could happen….

He said that they didn't have to do…that.

He also said that they could.

"Um…it might be a…a little haunted, Taka. I mean…we should still go inside and see…" said Mob. She didn't look at him while she said that. She looked down at his shoes. Her shoes. Both of their shoes. They were both wearing shoes. She had seen him without shoes on and he had seen her without shoes on. They were in their school uniforms, too. She had seen him in just his pink T-shirt and regular pants, he had seen her in just a T-shirt and skirt. That was the extent of his body that she had seen. That was the extent of her body that he had seen. She had never seen a boy naked in real life before.

Besides Ritsu when they took baths together when they were little.

But she did not want to think about Ritsu right then.

She didn't want to think about anything. She didn't want to think about how she had gotten up that morning, gotten dressed, gone to school, like this had been a normal day. This had been a normal day up until this point. Now it was not normal. Now it was…this…and she had wanted this for so long. At least she thought that she had wanted this. She thought that she had wanted this with him…and she still did. She had spent so many nights with a pillow squeezed in between her legs or her fingers up her nightshirt…

She thought about him.

She thought about him while she watched him stuff a bunch of coins and crumpled up bills into the machine at the front. Thank God that there hadn't been a person in front. Mob had only been to hotels a couple of times. Once when her family had to go to mom's cousin's wedding and once for a school trip back in elementary school. There had always been people at the front desk and people in the lobby and just…a lot of people. There weren't any people there in the lobby with them and there wasn't even a front desk. Mob was glad. She was glad that it was just her and him.

That was what she wanted.

"Hey Mob, check this out? Room 999. Three nine, it's lucky, huh?" said Taka. She watched his hands. One hand held the little plastic card and the other rubbed the back of his head. His gakuran rode up while he did that. She could see the hem of the pink shirt he always wore underneath. Undershirts were supposed to be white but Taka liked pink.

Her undershirt was white.

Maybe she should have worn a pink one.

Maybe she should have worn nicer underwear in general. Hers were white. Her underwear was white and her undershirt was white. She had some underwear that was patterned and in pretty colors but nothing that was…the kind that you wore when you had a boyfriend. The kind that they sold at the fancy store that mom always made her walk past and never took her into. The kind that the girls with the band aids on their necks and their skirts rolled way up wore. The kind that the kind of girls who did things like this wore.

Mob was one of those girls, now, the kind that did things like this.

She followed him into an elevator and up to room 999. The walls of the elevator were mirrored. The ground was in bright purple carpet. Her shoes sunk into it. She stood at one side of the elevator and he stood at the other. His hand was in his pocket. He was rocking back and forth on his heels. She watched him. She thought that he looked nervous. She caught sight of herself in the mirror. Her braids were floating a little. She was nervous too.

She had never done anything like this before.

Neither had he…to the extent of her knowledge. He said that he had never had a girlfriend before, not even back where he used to live before his parents got divorced and he had to move with his mom to Seasoning City. He had never had a girlfriend before but people didn't need to be in a relationship to do…what they were about to do. Right? How many of the people around them were couples and how many were just doing….that?

She was surrounded by people having sex.

And she would soon be one of them.

Or not. They didn't have to do…that. She had never done anything before. She had never even seen him naked. She knew that difference between boys and girls, she wasn't totally in the dark about this. She knew what people did. They kissed and touched and…and a lot of other things. Things that she had only read about. She had never even seen. She preferred to read manga. She liked reading about people falling in love and then falling into bed and then doing…all of that.

She wanted to do that.

She wanted to just fall into bed with him like manga. She wanted to fall into bed and do whatever it was that people in real life did in bed together when they were all alone and had…however long they had. She didn't know. She didn't know how long they had and suddenly she just wanted to get there. She wanted to be there, with him, and do…something. She squeezed her legs together and the elevator shook a bit.

"You…you ok?" asked Taka. He looked over at her as the elevator dinged and they stopped. She calmed down, she had to, or else they'd fall to the ground and probably die or something. She didn't want that. She wanted the two of them to…to get on with it.

"I'm fine, Taka. I just…I'm nervous I guess. Nervous and excited." Said Mob. She wondered if that was the right thing to say. She was excited but also…she was also kind of embarrassed about how excited she was. She was a girl and girls, good girls, weren't supposed to want to. Mom had said so. But that made no sense. If only boys wanted to then how did babies get made?

Also if they had sex she could she a baby.

The thought falls over her like a bucket of ice water. She's grateful that they're in the hallway now. She's grateful that they aren't in the elevator because if they had been she might have broken it and then they would have gone crashing to the ground from the ninth floor. She's grateful that they're in the hallway and walking towards the room where they would….where they could….

"…me too….thanks for coming here with me….and I'm sorry I lied…." Said Taka

"Lied?" asked Mob

"About this place being haunted. I mean…I just wanted to come here with you…." Said Taka

"You said that it could have been haunted. That's technically not a lie. This place could have been haunted but it's not. It's just a regular hotel…love hotel….and I'm happy to be here with you. I mean I want….we couldn't do this at my house. Ritsu would kill you." Said Mob

"Yeah…and we couldn't go to my house. My mom took my door off the hinges again." said Taka

"How do you get dressed?" asked Mob

"Really fast." Said Taka. He laughed when he said that. She laughed too after a short delay. They were at the door, now. The door was purple. The carpet was purple. The walls were purple. Was the room going to be purple too? It would make sense. She didn't know what color it was but she…she wanted to know. She did. She had thought about him, about how it would feel, more times than she could count.

And now she was here.

And now they were there.

But they were just standing there. He was hovering over the card reader but he made no move to scan it. She watched him. He watched the door. She wondered if he thought that it was going to do something. Maybe he had just never been to a hotel before. Maybe he just didn't know what to do. Maybe neither of them knew what to do. Maybe they should have just gone back to the park or the river and done what they knew how to do.

"Taka, if you don't know what to do-" said Mob. She was about to tell him that they could go and do something else, whatever he wanted, but then he cut her off. He did that sometimes, he cut everyone off, but he said that he had been trying to work on that.

"Do you feel anything?" asked Taka. Mob blushed.

"No…not...yet…" said Mob. She was red. She was as red as she could be. She must have been so red that she was about to pass out from blood rushing to her.

"Well then we should be extra cautious." Said Taka. Mob knew that voice. Oh. He was still doing the ghost hunting thing. Ok then. Sure. Fine. They could do that. Had she….had she been clueless again? But how could she have misunderstood him? He had been so clear.

But she did have a history of not being able to get a clue.

Her worries were confirmed when he did all of the ghost hunting, psychic type, things that he did. He said the prayer, rubbed the oil on the door frame, and even tossed some salt around. Mob felt like a deflated balloon. Her braids even fell down across her back. Taka honestly wanted to do the whoel ghost hunting thing? Really?

Really?

He opened the door with his usual amount of superfluous hand motions and didn't stop even when they got to the room. Which was purple. The walls were purple and the carpet was purple and the table was purple and the TV would have been purple, too, if they sold purple TVs. Mob just stood in the middle of the room taking in all of this purple while Taka paced around the room tossing salt around at random. Mob watched him.

He really wanted to do this?

There was a purple door and he went through it. Mob sighed and went to the bed. She laid down and stared at herself up in the ceiling mirror. This bed was soft. The top cover was silk. She didn't have a bed at home, just a futon. Taka had a bed though. probably because his mom was from the states and they all slept in beds over there. His bed was just for sleeping, though, like her futon was. She wondered if this bed had ever been slept in. Did people sleep here or did they just….do it? She didn't know. She wouldn't have known. She had thought that people made a lot of noise when they did it, she sometimes heard mom and dad late at night when she got up for a drink of water, but she couldn't hear a thing. Maybe the hotel was soundproofed. That would make sense. The only thing that she could hear was Taka's voice echoing in the other room. She turned her head to the side. A purple bathroom. A big purple tub.

She did like baths.

She wondered how long they were going to stay. How long did it take? Taka had said that they could do whatever she wanted…or maybe he was having second thoughts. Maybe he didn't even want to do that with her. She wasn't the sort of girl that boys did things like that with. She never wore makeup or rolled up her school skirt or wore pretty underwear or anything like that. She was just…Mob. She was plain and boring and she wondered what Taka ever saw in her.

Why he had kissed her.

That first kiss had come out of nowhere. One minute Taka was on the internet, live, trying to explain himself and everyone had been so bad…so she went to his house and did a bunch of stuff with her powers to mess up his room so people could see that psychic powers were real…and then she had been about to leave, she had been in his back garden, when he came running down the stairs to…to say that he was sorry and that he had missed her so much…

And then he kissed her.

He kissed her while the sun was setting behind them. It had been the best kiss of her life. It had been the only real kiss of her life. He was the only boy that she had ever kissed. She hadn't even kissed Teru and they had been on an actual date. She had kissed Taka without thinking. It had felt so right. The whole thing had just felt so right and good and perfect…

This felt right.

Even if Taka was having second thoughts. Even if he was doing his ghost hunting thing without her even recording. Even if he was pacing back and forth and talking to himself in the bathroom. She laid there listening to him. At least the room looked pretty. At least the bed was soft. At least this was a hotel and there would be complementary chocolates or mints or-

Those were not complimentary mints or candies or anything like that on the side table.

She sat up and held one in her hand. She knew what these were. They had been given these in health class. They had to roll them down onto bananas so that they would know what to do when the time came to…and Mob's hadn't stayed on because she had put it on inside out apparently….but she would need to get it right or else she could have a baby…and she was too young to have a baby. Mom and dad would have been mad at her if she got pregnant. Also she would have been pregnant.

She played with the plastic square in her hand.

It said that it was super thin. Didn't that mean that it would break easier? She had heard that these broke. That was why you were only supposed to wear one at a time. Also you were supposed to check for rips before you used it. Also you had to make sure that you weren't allergic to latex. Was she allergic to latex? She had no idea. She had never checked. She didn't have any allergies that she knew of. What if she was allergic to latex and she had an allergic reaction and had to go to the hospital and then the hospital would call mom and dad and then they would know that she and Taka had been to a love hotel and then they'd tell her that she couldn't see Taka anymore and then Ritsu would also kill him because Ritsu was always going on about how he had to keep her safe even though she could keep herself safe and Taka would never have done anything to hurt her and-

"Whoa Mob are you…ok…?" Taka was out of the bathroom now. He had buttoned his gakuran up and down all the way. He was staring at her. She stared at him. His eyes moved downwards…towards her hand….

She tossed that plastic square onto the bed like it had bit her.

"I-I wasn't….I was just…looking." Said Mob. She didn't mean that he had to use it…actually if they were going to have sex he did…but she didn't mean that he had to use it right then and there. Actually when did he have to? At school they just said to use a condom. Did they mean for everything or just sex? They really should have been clearer about that. Not that Mob knew if she needed that information. Taka was staring at her, now. She looked away from him, at where they had left their school bags by the door.

"I…I can safely say, I think, that this room is ghost free." Said Taka

"I know." Said Mob

"So, yeah, no overexcited guy had a heart attack in this room and died and is, like, haunting it and watching people do it." Said Taka

"That would be weird." Said Mob

"Yeah, but nothing like that is happening here. Nope. This house is clean." Said Taka. He said that last part in English and in a weird sort of voice. She stared at him.

"….Poltergeist." said Taka

"There isn't one here." Said Mob

"No I mean that from this movie called Poltergeist…that was a line from that movie…..sorry. Yeah, of course you haven't seen it. Sorry just…yeah." Said Taka. He was rubbing the back of his head, now, and looking away from her. She was looking away from him. They were just looking around, now, in that purple room.

"It's ok, Taka." Said Mob. She didn't know what they were supposed to do now. He was there and she was there and there wasn't any ghost and now they were just…there. Just the two of them, there, in that room together. They could have just gone home. His mom should have been home for work by then. They could order pizza and watch one of her American movies, with subtitles because Mob's English wasn't that good, and then she and Taka could share a blanket and hold hands and maybe even kiss when his mom got up to go to the bathroom or get her cigarettes or another sake or to yell at the cat or the thousand and one things that his mother did when Mob came to visit.

"Is that bed comfortable?" asked Taka suddenly. Mob shrugged. She bounced a little on it. She didn't much care for beds. They were very strange, just these things that took up space until you were ready to sleep on them, and they were so high off the ground. This bed was ok.

"It's a bed. It's not bad." Said Mob. She bounced on it again. The springs were even quiet. Taka's bed at his house had loud springs. Not that they had ever done more than kiss on it. One time Mob had sat down too hard and his mom threw the door opened and told them that they had to be in the living room for the foreseeable future.

Nobody's mom was going to be bothering them, then.

"Let me be the judge of that." Said Taka. Then he jumped across the room and onto the bed. That time it did groan and Mob worried, irrationally, that his mother would in fact come in and tell them that they had to go and be in the living room where she could watch them just like she had before only this time it would have been worse because she and Taka really were about to do something…maybe.

Maybe.

She had to use her powers to catch herself. She had almost rolled off the bed and onto the floor. It looked comfortable. The carpet looked super plush but she did not much want to be down there on the floor. Not while Taka was up there beside her. He had turned on his side and was looking at her. She looked back at him.

He reached over and took her hand.

She laced her fingers with his.

She was so close now that she could count his eyelashes. They were reddish blond and hard to see but she could see them. They were so pretty. His eyes were so pretty. He was so pretty. Boy pretty. Nice looking. Even the freckles on the bridge of his nose and the zits he had near his hairline were nice. They were nice because they were a part of him. Every part of him was nice.

This was nice.

"So…." Said Taka

"So what?" asked Mob

"So…what do you want to…do? I mean, we've already confirmed that there are no ghosts here-" said Taka

"None at all. Not even neutral spirits." Said Mob

"Yup, just us here…and I was just…I don't know. I had this idea where we'd come here and I'd do my thing and then we'd just hang out and sort of…do stuff. Not that I'm expecting anything! I just…we're not alone that often and I did some research and found this place and saved up my money…because I just wanted to be alone with you. Without my mom or your parents or your brother or anyone else to tell us to…stop. I mean we don't even have to start but…I guess that I should have said something first." Said Taka

"It would have been nice to have had some warning. I mean I'm not even…I didn't plan on this happening today." Said Mob

"It doesn't have to happen today or tomorrow or any day at all. It's up to you." Said Taka

"…what do you want?" asked Mob

"Huh?" asked Taka. She didn't know what was so confusing about the question. She just wanted to know what he wanted. There were two people in that bed, him and her, and she was not going to push him into doing anything that he wasn't ready for. That would have been selfish of her.

"Do you want this, Taka?" asked Mob softly. She didn't even know what 'this' was. She didn't know what she wanted or what he wanted or what it was even ok to want. She didn't know. All she knew was that they were together all alone in this room that was designed specifically for…this.

"Yeah, of course I do. I mean it was my idea and, ok, I should have done something more romantic now that I think about it but, hey, I'm fourteen and I don't even have a job. All I have is what my dad sends me and what I find in the couch cushions. I mean I thought that you'd like this because it's purple and I know that you like pink and purple and stuff and also it was the most anonymous, not that I'm ashamed or anything! I just didn't want anyone to, you know, punish us for this…which makes no sense! I mean everyone does it! Adults are a bunch of hypocrites! A bunch of-" said Taka. Mob knew what it meant when Taka got like this. She knew him and she knew that he felt cornered. But why? It was just the two of them? She wasn't trying to corner him. He could have left at any time, especially because neither side of the bed was against the wall.

"Taka." Said Mob as she cut him off in the middle of a tangent about how unfair his mother was. She didn't want him to feel cornered and she also didn't want to talk about either of their mother's right then and there. She just wanted…him.

She wanted him.

"Mob?" asked Taka. She took a deep breath. This was going to be the hardest thing that she had ever had to…but why would it be hard? This was Taka. It was just her and Taka. That was all.

"Can we kiss?" asked Mob. She felt better having just come out with it. That was all that she had wanted. Him and her, together. She wanted a lot more things but at that moment she wanted nothing more than to kiss him and to be kissed by him.

So that was what he did.

He closed the gap between them and kissed her. It started off like all of their kisses did. Mouths closed, eyes closed, lips pressed together. They kissed like that when they didn't have a lot of time. Kisses stolen during commercial breaks, at bus stops, and in the space between arriving at school and going off to their separate classrooms. This kiss didn't have to be short and it wasn't stolen. The time that they were using to kiss had not been stolen but had, in fact, been allotted specifically for this purpose.

She didn't break apart.

Neither did he.

They had done this part before a few times. Mob knew what to do. Taka wasn't going to open his mouth first. For a boy who loved to talk as much as he did he was surprisingly tightlipped when it came to kissing. She parted her lips just a little. Little by little until he got the idea. She liked it better when he led. When he was the leader then there was less of a chance of her messing this whole thing up. So she parted her lips slowly until she felt him do the same. His hand, which had been holding hers, went over to the space where her waist flared out into her hip. That was new, that dip, but she knew what it was for.

It was heaven when he held her there.

She could feel his tongue against her teeth now. They had to break apart for a second, breathing was necessary for life and life was necessary for kissing, but soon they were back at it. This time his tongue went right for her mouth. It was like fighting, almost, when they were like this. His tongue inside of her mouth. The two of them breathing in unison, sort of, they were still figuring that part out. She let him win. She let him taste her. He was skillful, she thought, not that she had anyone to compare him to. She had always thought of his tongue as skillful, though instead of making words it was making her sigh and gasp and reach up and around him to feel his back and now more of his weight was on her and-and-and-

And she wanted this.

She let him lay her down. He was half on her now. She reached up and played with the hair on the back of his head. It was soft. His hair was soft and shiny but not greasy and just the nicest hair that she had ever seen. She buried both of her hands in his hair, maybe in an effort to keep his from floating away, because she can feel hers trying to float away and even begin to come unbraided, undone, and maybe she's getting close to coming undone but not in THAT way, he hasn't even been anywhere near there yet-

Yet.

Yet. She wants him to. She wants him to reach under her skirt and push her underwear to the side like she has countless times. She's imagined him, his fingers, countless times…and now she actually has them. She has him. She has all of him and she has unlimited privacy for she doesn't even know how long and she can take his hand from her waist and move it in between her legs and he would-

He would do that…maybe.

He moved away from her mouth, now. She can feel his breath at the shell of her ear before she feels his tongue dragging across it and settling on her earlobe and she's never done this before but oh! And those are his teeth and this whole thing feels so good and she doesn't understand why because it's just her ear but it feels good and she wants to feel how good but his hand is still as her waist and hers are around his shoulders now and she can't take much more of this!

He stops.

She turns her head closer to his. She needs him to get back to it. She needs it like she needs air. But he's not doing anything. He's just lying there. A cold thought hits Mob. Had she….had she done something wrong? She's about to apologize for whatever it is before he speaks.

He stutters. He stumbles on his words. She's never heard him do this before. This is Reigen Arataka, he doesn't stumble on his words. He's good at talking, the best at talking, and he does not ever have trouble saying what he needs to say.

"Do you want to do more than…kiss?" he asks. Mob knows what he means. She knows the things that people do…or at least manga says that they do. She knows that those are things that happen, could happen, and have happened…in that room. That's what this room is for. This room is for that and she wants to do that so she nods.

"S-sure….Taka." said Mob. She feels his hand shaking at her waist. She wishes that it would move down. She wants him to reach down and touch that part of her, that part that loves attention, that part that's standing at attention. She can feel it if she squeezes her legs together. It gets bigger when she's like this, all worked up. She wonders if that's normal. She heard that boys got bigger…there…but they hadn't said a thing about girls and she had been too shy to ask. Maybe she was just weird…there.

Maybe he would be all grossed out.

It did get kind of gross when she was this worked up. She always had to wash her hands and change her underwear, afterwards, when she got like this in the middle of the night and everyone was asleep and nobody could hear her or what she was doing even though it sounded like someone was stirring a pot of macaroni and cheese…she closed her legs.

Maybe it would be better if he didn't touch her there.

Even though she wanted him to.

But it didn't matter. His hand was up, higher, to her breasts. Just the left one. Not that either of them were really anything. She didn't even have a bra yet even though all the other girls in class did. Mom said that she didn't need it and it didn't matter because she was too young anyway and the other girls were just fast. Well Mob hadn't felt fast and still didn't. He was probably going to say something like she looked like a grade-schooler or something mean like that because she was, as she had been told on more than one occasion, a carpenter's dream.

Because she was flat as a board and needed a screw.

"Is this ok? I mean, do you like this? Does this feel…good? Bad? Anything? You're just…Mob you're not giving me much to work with here." Said Taka as he just sort of held her breast like it was a water balloon. It didn't really feel like anything but embarrassing. It could feel good. She had touched herself there, too, even though there wasn't much to touch. She knew how to make herself feel good and when she imagined Taka he always knew just how to make her feel good…

Should she just come out and tell him?

Was that too bossy?

And did he even like this, anyway, or was he just humoring her?

"Do you like it? I mean, you're right, it's not much to work with…" said Mob softly. She closed her eyes. She expected him to take his hand away and tell her that this whole thing had been a great big mistake. Then they'd go their separate ways again and she'd be all alone and-

"I didn't mean it like that, Mob. This is…this is nice. I like it. I've never done…this…with a girl before. I would never say anything mean like that to you." Said Taka

"But it's the truth." Said Mob.

"No it's not. Mob…I like your…these. I like them a lot. They're like…the world's most perfect water balloons." Said Taka. Mob couldn't help it, she giggled. What had she been so worried about? This was Taka. He was always nice to her. He was a nice person. A good person. Even if he was kind of a liar sometimes…

He was her favorite liar.

But he was not lying then. She got a good look at his face. He was smiling. He was blushing and smiling. He liked them. He was sitting up, now, and his other hand had found her other breast. Now he was squeezing them like he was testing fruit. It was nice, being touched, but the way he was touching her…it wasn't that good.

He kept on doing it.

He looked to her face every so often and then doubled down on his efforts. Mob wondered what he got out of this. Boys didn't usually have breasts, some of the chubbier boys did and the other boys made fun of them for some reason, so of course Taka was interested in hers. She wondered if this felt good for him. He seemed to be having fun…..

She wasn't.

Because it just felt…weird. His hands through her school shirt and her undershirt pretending that her breasts were springtime melons and he was checking to see if they were good…and now she could never go food shopping again. She would forever associate food shopping with…this.

"Holy fucking shit I'm actually touching your fucking ti-….sorry, Mob, it just came out." Said Taka. Mob shrugged. She had heard him curse before. He cursed when he failed a test, he cursed when he won a videogame, he cursed when his ramen broth was too cold, he cursed when his takoyaki was too hot, he cursed when the first bell tang, he cursed when the last bel rang, and he cursed when he got sent to detention for cursing.

"That's ok. I'm glad that you're having fun, Taka." Said Mob. She looked up at herself in the ceiling mirror. Her face was red. Of course it was, he was touching her breasts. Her hair was trying to float too. She looked…not good….

But he must have been happy with her because he was still doing it.

"Are you? I mean…I've never done this before but I've seen it done…for research! Legitimate research! I just looked some stuff up to see…what people did…and-" said Taka

"You don't have to lie. I know you touch yourself." Said Mob simply. His hands stopped moving now. He stopped moving. He made a weird, high pitched, sound from the back of his throat and stared at her.

"I'm sorry if I said the wrong thing or if you don't. They just said at school that everyone touched themselves and that it was normal and I know that boys are always touching themselves, they keep getting in trouble for doing it at school, and I figured that you were talking about watching stuff when you said that you had been doing research. I'm sorry if I said something wrong or dumb or-" said Mob

"No, you didn't say anything wrong or dumb or anything. I just never imagined that you would just come out and say…or maybe I did. I mean, you say what's on your mind. I like that about you….and…yeah…it wasn't all for legitimate research. I…yeah. Sorry." Said Taka

"You don't have to say sorry, Taka, everyone does it and even if they didn't I still wouldn't want to make you feel bad." Said Mob. He got quiet for a moment and he still wasn't moving. Mob decided to sit up so that they were more equal. They faced each other, now, on the purple bed in the purple room with matching red faces to offset the sheer amount of purple….

She wasn't bothered.

He had a whole entire internet full of girls, of course he would have looked. Besides, she wasn't any better just because her stuff was manga and not live action. Really. It was all the same. Just because she thought about him didn't mean that he had to think about her. There were plenty of girls on the internet for him to look at. There were girls at school, too, like Tsubomi because she was perfect and pretty and her breasts bounced whenever they did jumping jacks for gym class and there was Tome who had really pretty eyelashes and was tall and also had really nice legs and then there was Mezato who had a really nice waist and was nice to hug-

And those were confusing thoughts that she sometimes had about other girls that she would address at a later time.

"Do you?" asked Taka stopping those thoughts better than Mob ever could. She blushed harder than she thought was possible and looked down on the bedspread. The condom was on the bed between them. He didn't seem to notice it. He did notice, though, when she nodded. He made that weird throat sound when she nodded. He sat back and just sort of stared at her. He was sweaty, too, but that was normal for him. He was just a sweaty guy a lot of the time. She didn't mind. It actually added to him even though she knew that sweat was, objectively, gross.

"Holy fucking-sorry. Just…wow. I never knew that you…wow." Said Taka. Mob frowned.

"Everyone does…." Said Mob. She was weird. She knew that people said that she was weird. Taka thought that she was weird too….

"I know it's just….I can't picture you…and now I am. What do you do? I mean, ok, that was a weird question. I just never thought that you….I mean I know that you like me and I know that you like it when we kiss but I never thought that you-" said Taka

"I'm weird, ok? You don't have to rub it in." said Mob

"What? No, I never said that! It's normal, everyone does it, you said so yourself. Like, I know that girls do it too! I mean I don't think less of you, directly the opposite actually, it's just that I never imagined that you would do…that. Nothing against you! I guess that I just never pictured you doing….that….oh God but now I can't stop picturing it….I don't even know what you do but I just can't stop-" said Taka. He closed his eyes and shook his head. Mob didn't get him sometimes and now was one of those times.

What was so hard to believe about the fact that she liked feeling good just like everyone else did?

"Fingers." Said Mob without thinking. She just wanted him to come off of it, being all weird about her wanting to feel good. She wasn't a kid even though she knew she looked like one. She wasn't…she was weird…but she wasn't that weird. She was just like everyone else! She liked to feel good and she just wished that he could come off it already!

"Say what?" asked Taka opening his eyes. Mob reached behind her and held her braids down with her hand. She was happy that aside from a bed, a side table, a TV, and some drawers the room was bare. If she had been at home her room would have upended itself long ago.

"I…my fingers. Usually. That's how I…you said that you didn't know how I did it and now I'm telling that I…I use my fingers. This hand." Said Mob showing him her writing hand. He nodded. He was speechless. If he hadn't been speechless he would have been saying something. But he said nothing, nothing at all. He just nodded. He wasn't saying anything so she just kept on talking because if she stopped then neither of them would be talking and then everything would be more awkward than it already was.

"Sometimes a pillow…or a bunch of blankets…if I don't feel like having to wash my hands afterwards or if someone's in the bathroom or I can hear that someone else is awake. I usually do it at night because nobody knocks at my house and I don't want anyone to walk in on me. I…I just sort of lay down on my stomach if I have a pillow or something otherwise I stay on my back and I just reach down and touch…it…until it feels really good and I…finish." Said Mob. He was still silent. What more did he want? Did he want her to draw him a picture or something?

"And….yeah. That's what I do. I touch my breasts sometimes, too, but not that often…and that's really…it….ok? Arataka, if you didn't want to know then you shouldn't have asked." Said Mob quietly. Her face burned with shame. How could she have just…said…all of that? Nobody knew about that! Only Mob, her stuffed animals, and God knew about that!

"I did want to know! Sorry, sorry, I sounded like a perv there….I mean I asked because I wanted to know and…and this is good speechless. I'm processing. I mean, here I am and my girlfriend is telling me how she jerks off and-and-and it's a lot for me right now. There are a million and one questions running through my mind right now and-" said Taka

"You can just ask them, Taka. I mean I already told you all that there was to know but you can ask me anything. I mean I know that you aren't going to tell anyone else or make fun of me-" said Mob

"I would never. This stays in this room. Scout's honor!" said Taka

"You used to be a scout?" asked Mob

"I joined on a trial basis when I was eight so I can still claim scout's honor. I swear to God or Jesus or Buddha or…what else am I? Mom's a Christian and Dad's a Buddhist but his mom was….that doesn't matter! I swear to whoever's listening that I will never repeat a word of this to anyone even under threat of torture." Said Taka. He hand his hand over his heart while he said that. Mob giggled a little. He was so funny sometimes…how could she have ever thought that he had been calling her weird? Especially when he was so weird himself.

They were weird together.

They were the weirdest couple in school, people said, and Mob couldn't have had it any other way.

"Ok. I believe you. What did you want to ask me?" asked Mob

"A million things." Said Taka

"Do we have that kind of time?" asked Mob

"For you I have all the time in the world…but we only have three hours on the room so I'll make it snappy." Said Taka

"You don't have to. I mean I don't want to rush you." Said Mob

"You're not rushing me, I just don't want to eat up all of our time sitting here trying to puzzle out the perfect question. I'd probably fuck it up anyway. Like Kyle when Jesus gave the world one question and he asked-nope. Shut up about South Park, Arataka, now is not the time." Said Taka

"What's South Park?" asked Mob

"It's this show from America my mom likes and she doesn't like me watching. I don't get her. Why have the satellite TO America if I can't watch shows FROM America? God! Since mom and dad split she's been so…sorry. Sorry, Mob, just…yeah. Sorry. I shouldn't bitch about my mom or be thinking about TV. Just…I have no idea what I should ask you….you're never this open about…this stuff…with me." Said Taka

"You've never asked." Said Mob

"I never thought that I could." Said Taka

"You can. I mean…we're boyfriend and girlfriend…and this is the sort of thing that boyfriends and girlfriends do together. They talk about this sort of stuff…and they do this sort of stuff…" said Mob

"Hey, can I ask you something?" asked Taka

"I already said that you could ask me anything." Said Mob

"I know I just…what do you want to happen? I mean….I've never done anything and I just…I want to do everything with you but I don't want to push you or make you feel obligated to do anything." Said Taka

"I don't feel obligated or pushed. I want…I guess that I want all the stuff that I think about us doing." Said Mob

"….what do you think about us doing?" asked Taka. Mob was quiet for a moment. Should she tell him? She had already told him so much…and they were boyfriend and girlfriend anyway. This was what boyfriends and girlfriends talked about…and did together…

"When I'm alone I…I pretend that it's you." Said Mob

"That's….whoa…sorry! I won't interrupt again! You know me and my mouth….heh…please, Mob, carry on." Said Taka. He cleared his throat at the end and now his hands were folded like he was in school…even though she knew for a fact that he never sat at his desk with his hands folded and even made fun of people who did that. But now was not the time to be thinking about school.

"I just…..I pretend that it's you with me doing it to me. Sometimes I imagine that we're at school in my classroom and it's empty but you're touching me…or sometimes we're in your room…or my living room…and you just reach under my shirt or my skirt and you touch me and it feels good…that's all…I mean that's….um…I don't know if I should tell you this." said Mob

"You can tell me anything. Remember, scout's honor? Even if I was a scout for, like, a week it still counts." Said Taka

"Um…right….just….um….ok. Do you remember that day when mom had to take Ritsu to the dentist and dad was downstairs watching TV? And we kissed a lot? With…with our mouths opened?" asked Mob

"Mob, I will remember that until the day I die." Said Taka

"Me too. It was…it was good. It was so good and I…after your mom called you to come home I…mom and Ritsu weren't back yet and dad never bothers me when I'm in my room so I…well first I put my wardrobe in front of the door because I REALLY didn't want anyone to see me doing this….because it was the most….I guess personal….would be the word for it. It was the most personal thing I've ever done…" said Mob. She tucked her chin down low and she held her braids tight even though her powers were making them come apart. He was watching her still. She could feel him watching her.

"Um….I really wanted to be with you….a lot. Nobody had ever kissed me like that before…or at all before…and I wanted to feel…..it made me feel a lot of stuff…and it got me thinking about feeling more stuff…and I missed you so I…um…..my hairbrush." Said Mob. She said the last part quick and soft and fast and she still wished that she could have taken the whole thing back but she couldn't because she had said it and things couldn't be unsaid and-

"Huh? What'd you say?" asked Taka. Mob shook her head. She could pretend that she had never said anything….but he knew that she had said something and she wasn't a good enough liar to make something up on the spot.

So she told the truth.

"I used my powers to use my hairbrush to…to pretend that it was you." Said Mob. He made that weird sound again. She wondered if it was healthy for a person to make that sound. She felt kind of like it might not have been.

"The handle side, not the bristles, because that would have hurt a lot…if that's what you made that sound about…" said Mob

"N-No. I just….my girlfriend just said that she used her psychic powers to fuck herself with her hairbrush while she pretended that it was me. Nothing about this isn't…I need a minute." Said Taka

"Ok." Said Mob

"The pink one? The pink one that you keep on your desk? That hairbrush?" asked Taka even though he had just said that he needed a minute.

"Yes. That pink one. I only have one hairbrush. I used to have a Hello Kitty one that looked like her head but it got too old and mom said that I needed a proper one so-" said Mob

"I've seen that hairbrush. You fucked yourself with the hairbrush you keep on your desk and I've just been sitting in the room with it every single time that I've come over and you never said anything." Said Taka

"Should I have?" asked Mob. That did not seem like the sort of thing that would just come up like normal in polite conversation. That was why it had come up now, this was not polite conversation at all.

"If you had wanted to. I mean I have no idea when it would have come up but…yeah…if you ever want to tell me about that stuff please, for the love of God, call me." Said Taka

"But what if your mom takes your phone away?" asked Mob

"Then we'll buy walkie-talkies or make a soup can telephone or just stick our heads out of our windows and yell real loud…or maybe not that last one. The neighbors might have a thing or two to say about that…and I live six blocks away, too." Said Taka. He was laughing, now, which told Mob that he wasn't serious. That was good…though she did get the feeling that he wanted to know more about when she touched herself…because he seemed to like it.

Her eyes went lower.

She had been to health class. She knew what that meant.

"That's hot as fuck, though…sorry. It just is. I mean….wow. I can't believe….wow. Do you do that, I mean do you do it like that a lot or-" said Taka

"Um….not that often. I don't want to get caught and I don't like how risky it is or how loud I get….I mostly just use my fingers." Said Mob

"Same. I mean I don't…not like how you do…but I'm a guy and we don't have as many ways to….yeah. I mean I think about you too and-" said Taka

"You think about me?" asked Mob

"Of course I do, you're my girlfriend, who else would I think about?" asked Taka

"Girls on the internet….girls from TV….girls from school. Like Tome has really nice eyelashes and legs and she's tall and Tsubomi has pretty everything and her hair is so soft looking and when she runs in gym…but it's impolite to look at people like that….and Mezato feels really nice to hug and she has this dip in her waist so that's why it feels good to hug her…." said Mob. Maybe she should have kept that one to herself. Just maybe.

"….you are full of surprises tonight….I am learning so much about you and, honestly, I like it….I like it a lot…" said Taka

"I-I like that you're happy….and I like being with you….I do….um…yeah." said Mob. She had her own set of a million and one questions. How did boys do it? She had seen plenty of boy's love manga, she knew what boys did there, but that was art and not life. She wondered what he did. How he did it.

What he thought about her doing.

Her eyes moved down again. She may have been staring at it. She was just curious. She had never seen it before, any boy's it, and sharing a bath with her brother when she was four did not count. She had seen Taka's through his pants before when they kissed and stuff but she had never seen it…

It probably would have been better than her hairbrush.

"Hey Mob, friggin shot in the dark here but…um…since we're learning so much about each other maybe we could…learn a little more?" asked Taka reaching over and playing with the hem of her school shirt. Mob stared down at his hand. He was pulling her shirt up a little….

Oh.

"Do you mean take off both of our clothes or just mine?" asked Mob. She was ok with that. She had told Taka pretty much every personal thing ever, she was ready for this. Really she was. It wasn't like she was much to look at anyway.

"Both of us! I mean, to be fair. Fairness is important. I mean…if you don't want to see me naked I totally get it, and you don't have to take your clothes off either. I just thought that since, you know, we were both being so open…." Said Taka

"Ok. I'll do it…if you will…" said Mob

"I'll do it. Yeah. I've got….yeah. I can do this." said Taka. She nodded. Then they just sort of sat there. She didn't know how to start. From the top? From the bottom? Clothes then underwear? The whole top and then the whole bottom? What about socks? What was she supposed to do about those? She didn't want to get cold feet…in any sense of the phrase.

"Do you want to start or should I?" asked Mob

"Well it was my idea so…" said Taka. He started to unbutton his gakuran. Mob looked away. She had seen him without his school uniform on a million and one times before. So why did this feel different? Probably because they were in this room. She looked up. Now she could see him. Top down view, like in a videogame, but this was not a game. This was not a game at all. This was life and Taka had just took off his uniform shirt and now he was just in the pink T-Shirt he wore underneath even though he knew that it was a clear uniform violation but he still did it anyway.

She liked that about Taka. The way that he was brave like that. Ritsu said that he was stupid and contrary and a liar and all of that other stuff but Mob thought that he was brave, the bravest boy she knew. She would never have been brave enough to think of something like this. There were so many things that she wanted but she was in no way brave enough to ask.

It was easier to just go along with Taka.

He was brave enough for the both of them.

But Mob could be brave, too. She had been brave enough to come here with him. She had been brave enough to do a lot of things with him, like save Ritsu from Claw that one time, or go on that job where they ran into…and she's not going to think about that awful job or that awful thirty minutes or the half year that wasn't. No. She was going to think about Taka. She had thought about Taka then, too, and that was how she had kept her sanity. She liked him a lot. She cared about him.

The world 'love' bounces around in her mind.

It's got a shape, a look, a feel and it's there. She thinks that she may love him. She may love that boy sitting there in his pink T-Shirt blushing and stammering and talking about she didn't even know what. Even sitting there like a nervous puddle of nervousness she still thought that he was the bravest boy in the whole world. She still thought that she may have loved him. It's scary a little, this feeling, because it brings with it a lot of other feelings. She loves him and she doesn't understand. She needs him to take her by the hand. She needs him to be near her. She needs to be with him but she is with him but she still wants to be with him.

But he feels an ocean away.

And not just because he's only half Japanese and sometimes says things in a language that she can barely understand and watches shows that she's never even heard of and celebrates holidays that she's only seen on TV. He feels an ocean away because he's there and he's ready for this and she…she isn't sure. She knows that she wants this but the reality of not wearing a stitch of clothing, there, in that room, with him also not wearing a stitch of clothing….and nothing being between them….

She doesn't know what she'll do.

That's being with Taka. When you were with Taka you never knew just what was going to happen. He was telling her, now, that if she was uncomfortable that she didn't have to. But she wasn't uncomfortable. She was nervous but not uncomfortable. Had he been any other boy, any of the other boys in her life that not Taka like Teru or Sho or anyone else, she would have been uncomfortable.

She's nervous, not uncomfortable.

She lets go of her braids and pulls at the hem of her school shirt. He's stopped talking, now, and the silence is make her just a little bit more nervous. She wants him to keep going on about nothing, to just ignore her until she does….this. Because now he's watching her and he probably expects something but there's absolutely nothing to see, nothing to expect, and suddenly she wishes that she was older. She wishes that they were both older because then, maybe, there would have been something to look at…or not. Maybe she would just look like this for her entire life.

"If your nervous I can be….first….I mean that I can get undressed first. I mean only if you want me to. I'm still pretty much fully dressed. It's different for guys, I mean my undershirt is just a shirt. If you took that off then you'd just be in your bra-" said Taka

"I'm not wearing a bra, just an undershirt. I don't really need…well you were just touching my…." Said Mob. She got quiet to the end because Taka got quiet to the end. He didn't' say a word. He just got this look, Mob knew that look, it was his determined look. Mob hadn't seen that look in a while. Taka usually tried to make everything he did look easy and effortless. Mob would have loved this whole thing to be easy and effortless. But it wasn't. This was new and kind of hard….but it was still happening and that was what mattered the very most.

The bed dipped as he got up.

He stood at the end of the bed, took a deep breath, and pulled off his pink undershirt. Mob didn't even have time to get used to that because he undid his pants, slipped those off, kicked them into a corner, and then he was just in his boxers and his socks. She hadn't know that he wore pink and grey striped boxers but now she did and she could not un-know this fact about him. She was staring now, and now he had given her a moment to stare, as his hooked his thumbs in the corner of his boxers. She wasn't staring at hit thumbs, though, she was staring at the outline of his….of him…in his boxers. That was…from what she could see she had no idea how he walked around like that all the time. Wait, they got a lot bigger, didn't they? It was still bigger than her hairbrush handle. She could see an outline of…it…and it occurred to her that she was about to see a boy's 'it' and she had no idea…well she had some idea from manga…but manga was not real life.

Manga didn't draw in the wet spot first of all.

There was that considerable wet spot on the front of his boxers and Mob had no idea that it would be there or why, she thought that it was a lot more when boy's finished, and she didn't know why that would be there unless he had finished…but they hadn't even done anything…and if he had finished wouldn't it have gone back to being small? She didn't know and now did not seem like the time to be asking questions about just how it all worked down there.

But she had some.

Especially after he closed his eyes and yanked down his boxers and….wow. There it was. She had no idea how that was supposed to fit inside of her but there it was. Was it supposed to be curved like that? And what was with all of that extra skin on top? Also she had known that he must have had hair there, too, but for some weird reason she hadn't been expecting it to be the same color as the hair on his head and arms and…he had a lot of leg hair…and on his stomach, too, and some on his chest. It was all the same color and Mob wanted to reach over and touch it just to see if it was as soft as the hair on his head or as rough as the hair that she had down there….not that she spent a lot of time contemplating that hair…but maybe she should have. She had heard that boys didn't like it but she was not about to go and take a sharp object to that part of her body.

"So…you like?" asked Taka with a shrug. Mob looked up from where she had been staring, and she had been staring, to meet his eyes. His hands were at his sides but he kept on putting them together and then putting them back at his sides. She wanted to take his hand right then and there and she did.

They had held hands before.

She was still sitting down when she reached over to hold his hand so she got a good view of his…of him…and it moved when she did that. She wondered if it moved on it's own or he made it do that. She wondered a lot of things about….that. Things that she wondered if it was ok to wonder. Like could he pick things up with it? She giggled a little bit at her own ridiculous thought.

"I'm sorry that I laughed, it wasn't at you, I was just thinking….and I like…this. I've never seen you naked before but I've wanted to…and now I am…and it's nice…"said Mob

"Thanks…you're nice too…I mean you will be. I mean you look nice now but I've…I've thought about you a lot too…" said Taka. Mob stood up. She didn't feel as nervous anymore. Taka wanted to see her naked and he liked her, he wouldn't make fun of her, and indeed he had never once made fun of her. Even when he called her dummy sometimes it wasn't in the way that some people did when they wanted to insult her. She's not nervous and she doesn't know how long this feeling will last so she gets up and before she can think she takes off her school shirt and her undershirt.

Then her school shirt.

The nervousness comes back when she gets to the band of her underwear. She can feel her hair, it come out of its braids, and she'll have to look for her hair ties later. She can feel it floating all around her and she can feel the nervousness coming back so she's got to do this before she can't anymore…before she loses her nerve….and she can't do that because it wouldn't be fair to Taka. He's standing there naked and she should be naked too and he wants to see her naked and she wants him to see her naked and she likes what she sees of him and she wants him to like what he sees of her and-and-and-

And she slides her underwear down quickly and kicks them off in the same corner that he kicked his off into. She's cold, very cold, especially there because she had been so…ready. She had been so ready and worked up and she would have thought that being nervous like this would have made it go away but it was actually getting worse because Taka was looking at her now and…and she liked it…

Also it moved again.

She thought that it meant that he liked it. She had heard that boys were like dogs but she had never imagined….

And now ridiculous thoughts were making her smile.

"What's so funny?" asked Taka

"Nothing. It just…it moves when you're happy? Is that the rule with it?" asked Mob

"Huh? Uh…sometimes….yeah, it wags when I'm happy. Dog rules Mob, it works on dog rules." Said Taka. Mob giggled at that. It was doubly funny, the second part of it being funny was that Taka really liked dogs, they were his favorite animal, and this whole thing just had her giggling a little bit even though she knew that this was supposed to be serious. The first time she had ever seen a boy naked or had a boy see her naked and she was laughing.

"Well it sure looks like you're happy too but I can make-make you happier….if you'll let me." Said Taka. His voice was low and deep, there, when he said that. His hand found her waist, both of them, because he was facing her now. His…he was poking her in the thigh and for some reason that sent butterflies to her stomach even though it was just her thigh but it was his…he was poking her there and she had made him all…like that…and that just made the butterflies worse!

"I'm already happy but…but you can make me happy if you want to…Taka." Said Mob. He didn't say anything, he just kissed her. He kissed her and moved closer to her and it took her a little bit to realize that he wanted her to move backwards. She could do that. She moved backwards until her legs were hitting the bed….and he still wanted her to move backwards…so she sat down. She sat down and she expected him to sit next to her but instead he kneeled on the ground in front of her and the only thing she would think to do was to ask him if the carpet was as plush as it looked.

He said that it was.

And then he asked her if he could make her feel good.

She could only nod. Words were hard for her in general but at that moment she had forgotten every single word of Japanese that she knew. She had imagined this so many times…though when she had imagined this before she had always pictured him lying in bed beside her, but this was nice too. This would feel nice. This was Taka. She knew that he would reach over and he'd make her feel good…and it did feel good….when she did it anyway. It wasn't like it was complicated. The nubby thing was right there, and bigger than it usually was, so of course that was the part to touch.

Taka didn't seem to think so.

He didn't even seem to see the nubby thing even though it was right there. He went right for…and ouch. He just sort of stuck his finger in and then moved it really fast in and out…and his nails were kind of sharp, too…

Also Mob really hoped that he had washed his hands after tossing all of that salt around.

Mob looked down and watched him do…whatever it was that he thought that he was doing. He had the look he got when he was focusing on a particularly difficult bit of math homework and Mob didn't get it. This was easy. Touch the nubby thing until she finished. It wasn't like she had a million different places down there sticking out begging for attention. He was totally ignoring it. He was just watching his finger going in and out of her like it was the World Series or something.

And then he did a second one.

"I'm not hurting you, am I?" asked Taka as he stopped moving, two of his finger just hanging out inside of her and not moving like it was a finger warmer or something.

"It doesn't hurt…your nails are kind of long but it doesn't hurt…" said Mob

"Oh….I'll cut them next time." Said Taka

"That would be nice." Said Mob. The thought of a second time didn't seem so appealing, now, because this was nothing like she imagined it. It seemed….in her head it had been better…because it had felt like something. This was just disappointing….

"Am I…is this doing anything for you?" asked Taka. Mob shrugged.

"I'm not sure what you're doing." Said Mob

"….getting you off?" asked Taka. His voice had kind of a strained quality to it when he said that. Mob didn't know why. Had she done something wrong or said something wrong? He asked her if she liked it and she told him the truth. She had heard that you were supposed to fake it when a boy did stuff to you but that seemed kind of….dumb. Tome said that she faked when she and Inukawa did stuff like this…and then she complained about how bad at it Inukawa was. Mob didn't understand faking feeling good. If a boy did something to you and it didn't feel good but you made him think that it did then he would keep on doing stuff to you that didn't feel good.

Though how he messed up something so simple she did not understand.

"Why are you doing it like that? It doesn't feel good…it doesn't feel like anything. I don't usually do that but when I do it's just to make it feel better when I touch myself the regular way." said Mob. She watched his shoulders fall and he pulled his fingers out of her. She felt…she felt kind of alone, then, even though it hadn't felt good. It had been…she had been so close to him, he had been inside of her, and she had been so focused on how it felt that she hadn't even thought about what it was that he was doing to her…

"Show me? I mean…show me what you mean….please….because I just…this should be good for you and I've never done this with a girl and….yeah." said Taka. Mob was glad that he was being so open. Before, when he didn't get something he just pretended that he did, but this was good. He had told her that he wasn't going to be like that anymore. He was going to be open and honest, he said, one hundred percent honesty.

Also he had just asked her to show him how she touched herself.

And he was still kneeling there even though his knees must have been killing him. She wondered why he had to be down there for but she didn't want to pop the soap bubble that was…this. That was this thing that was happening between them. She wanted this to be happening. She wanted…she wanted a lot of things…and she wanted them to be good and they wouldn't be good if she didn't show him how to make it good…

She reached down and touched the nubby thing.

And he was still staring. She went in circles like she usually liked, from closer to the top rather than from the bottom. The closer she got to the bottom, to the peak of it, the better she felt and the faster she would finish. She didn't want to be done. She could have gotten done on her own. Taka was there and she…she wanted it to be Taka. She had spent so many nights imagining Taka and how that she could have him-

Oh. There was his finger.

Right beside hers and doing what she was doing, like they were playing Simon Says or something like that. But they weren't playing anything, this was not a game, this was real life and-and-and it felt so…

He kissed her inner thigh.

"I think I've got it, now….if you'll let me take over. Come on, round two, and this time I've got it." Said Taka. He sounded determined, one hundred percent determined, and also his hand was on her stomach and he was pushing her back and oh! He wanted her to lay down. She laid down and let him….oh yes.

Now he was focused on the nubby thing.

Also the bed was bolted down. She realized that the bed was bolted down when he slid his hands across her inner thighs and then kissed her there. He kissed her hard on her inner thigh and that felt so good…even though it was so hard, hard like when he kissed her on the neck hard enough to leave a mark, and she thought that he would leave a mark but she wanted him to…nobody but him and her would ever see it besides them. He left his mark there while his fingers found the nubby thing and went in circles, harder and faster than she had been doing, but still good….

And he was kissing his way into her inner thighs…up higher…and she knew exactly what he was going to do. Nobody had ever done that to her before but she had read about it. The thought of him doing that with her made her…that wasn't all his spit. On her inner thighs this was not all him. She shifted and felt a wet spot underneath her. This was her. This was all her. Him and her. He was the one making her feel this good.

"…you are so wet…how are you this wet…God you are so wet….oh God you're so wet…" he was saying that over and over and over again. She didn't know who he was saying it to. She knew that he was wet, she knew that she was wet, and nobody else was there. Not even spirits. She didn't know what was so amazing about that. She was wet, that was what happened when girls wanted it, and they had been to the same health class. She knew that he knew that this was what happened to girls and she didn't know what was so amazing but it felt…good…when he said it.

He was noticing.

It was hard not to notice. It sounded like he was stirring a pot of macaroni and cheese or oatmeal or something that sounded wet and squelchy when it was stirred. She could smell it, too, which meant that he could and it was kind of embarrassing and she suddenly wanted to close her legs but she didn't because he was still there and he didn't mind so if she didn't mind then he didn't mind or was it that if he didn't mind then he wouldn't mind?

Or maybe they were just long past the point of embarrassment.

Even if they were both still so red. She could see them, there, in the mirrored ceiling. She could see the top of his head, the tips of his ears, his whole back…she had no idea that he had so many freckles there…and he was just as red as she was. But why was he nervous? He was Taka. He wasn't afraid of anything. He was Taka and he always, usually, knew just what to do. Like then. He was still touching her and kissing her but now he wasn't doing it the way she was. She was still feeling good, though, so she didn't mind that he was touching it different. He was touching it and that was what mattered.

He went up and down.

Hard.

Soft.

Circles.

Big circles.

And he was still kissing the skin of her inner thigh. She had no idea that it could be so sensitive, that anything could, that anything could feel this good…but it did. She reached down and tugged on his hair. She just needed touch him and his hair had been the only thing that she could reach. She had maybe tugged too hard because he stopped, she moved against his fingers to get him to keep going, but he had stopped…

"Mob….Mob…whatever you want….your wish is my command." He said. She didn't what he thought that she meant and she was about to ask then she felt…

That had not been his finger.

He was…she felt a lot of things. The embarrassment was back. Did it look ok? Did it taste ok? Was she…was she normal? Was this ok? Was he about to get up and tell her that this whole thing had been a mistake and-

This was Taka.

Taka would never have done something like that. He was always saying that sometimes you had to run away but this was not one of those times. This had been her idea after all. She had been the one to want this with him and she was going to stop thinking like that. He was acting like he liked it too, Mob thought, in the way that he was saying her name when he came away from her for air. The way his fingers were digging into her thighs now. The low,

This time she did close her legs. She crossed her legs behind his shoulders and covered her mouth to keep from making noise. This was….this was…he was actually…and how could anything have possibly felt this GOOD?! He was just liking her, liking that part of her, like she was a lollipop and it was so good and this was so good and now….she needed…she reached up and touched her breasts because she could make it feel even better…and because her hands were so busy she had no way of stopping herself from making noise…but it didn't matter if she made noise or not because that was what this room was FOR and he wanted her to feel good and-

It was like a knot that was pulled tighter and tighter until it flew apart.

It started in her stomach. She could feel the butterflies there got worse and worse but in a good way. It fluttered. Her stomach then her heart and then her thighs started to quake and she may have pulled on his hair a little too hard and the building may have started to shake and-and-and-

And she loved him.

She let him go once it was over, truly over, and the last of the aftershocks stopped. She felt like her bones had turned to jelly and she was melting down into the bed. Her breathing was deep and slow and it had felt like the most amazing thing ever and she wanted to do it with him again and again and again but not right then because it was always super sensitive when she finished…but she didn't know when they would get another chance like this.

The bed dipped. He was lying beside her now.

Something crinkled as he laid down. He reached under himself and pulled out…oh. Right that had been on the bed the whole time. The whole time that she had been on the bed that had been on the bed. They were on the bed together, now, and that was on the bed and they could…on that bed. This bed which was neither of their beds but which existed for the express purpose of…this. This thing that they could do together….that so many people had done together right there in that room. Mob didn't feel grossed out by that fact. She felt…better. Because that was what this room was for and it was ok for her to want to. This was ok. This whole thing was ok.

"We don't have to if you don't want to." Said Taka suddenly. He had been playing with it, the sound of plastic crinkling had drowned out the sound of their breathing. Mob turned onto her side to face him. Love. The word love was there, in her mouth, again. He looked….he was sweaty. His bangs were plastered to his forehead. His eyes were so wide that they looked black, not blue, even though she knew that they were blue. The best shade of blue. The most wonderful shade of blue that there ever was…

Love.

She loved him.

She loved Reigen Arataka.

She loved Taka.

So she kissed him. She didn't mind that he tasted like her, she'd mind later of course but not now, and she could think about the fact that she was tasting herself and he had tasted her and she was tasting him and herself and they had done all of that stuff and all of that later. Right now she wanted…she knew that she was not thinking, not really. She knew that she needed to maybe slow down, maybe think about what she was about to do…what they were about to do…but she felt good and she felt like she was in love and that was all she could think about, love, and she wanted to….to make love…

She couldn't imagine anyone in the world that she would have rather done this with than Reigen Arataka.

She reached down, lower, and felt him. It was warm. She knew that it was an irrational thought to have, of course it was warm it was a part of him and he was a human being and human beings were ninety eight point six degrees all the time unless they were sick or something and neither of them was sick but she still felt warm and she thought that he still felt warm and it was warm and also the skin was soft and kind of lose, especially at the top, and the top was the most fascinating part of all because the skin moved and it felt like there was something under it and also he was wet there even though he hadn't finished and she had no idea that boys could even get wet and it was different from hers and she pressed her thumb to it so see how different and he was moving into her hand now and his fingers were digging into her arm and-

He rolled over.

He was breathing really heavy and he had his eyes closed tight.

She had done something wrong.

She started to apologize for everything, even though she had no idea what she had done wrong, when he raised his hand and shook his head. He was still on his back on the bed and he was still breathing really heavy and he was still so red and the room was still so purple and Mob still felt so…much…right then and there….

"Don't apologize, dummy, it was good. It was really good….and I got really close…but I don't want to finish yet. I mean if you want me to I will, no pressure to do…that….but I do want to do…that." Said Taka. Mob knew what he was talking about. He was playing with that plastic square again and she could hear the sound of crinkling plastic and she wonders if the others would be that loud. There's one in a shiny foil square and one in a bright purple square. The one that Taka's holding isn't shiny or purple, it's black, and it says that it's super thin….which she isn't sure if it's a good thing…the others say super thin, too, and one says that it's super big…she knew nothing about this and decided to let Taka pick one…if they were going to be doing….that….having sex…because he's the boy and boys must know about these things….right?

"…we can…I mean I want to…" said Mob softly. The word love was still hanging out there, on her lips and in her mind, but it was joined by another word. Sex. Sex was there too and sex had a…harder…feel than love. Love gave her goosebumps and butterflies. Sex gave her…a lot of other feelings. Feelings that were coming back. Usually it was one and done when she was alone but this…Taka was there and he wanted to keep going…and she wanted to make him feel as good as he made her feel.

She also wanted to know if he felt anything like her hairbrush.

"Ok. Cool. This is happening. Cool. Let me just get this opened and…yeah. Cool." Said Taka. He put it between his teeth and Mob didn't think, she just pulled it back with her powers.

"Taka, don't use your teeth. Remember the big assembly we had? Where they told us what to do? You're not supposed to use your teeth because you could put a tiny hole in it and then I could have a baby and then our parents would be mad at us…also we'd have a baby to take care of." Said Mob as seriously as she could.

"You were actually paying attention during all of that?" asked Taka

"Yes. It was important. What were you doing?" Said Mob

"…playing my Gameboy and thinking up crazy questions for the question box…." Said Taka

"Oh. Wait, was it you that asked if people could get dogs pregnant? Because that wasn't funny, it was weird….and I don't know why so many people laughed. People are so hard to understand sometimes." Said Mob

"Hell no! I was the one who asked if you could get a girl pregnant if you did it hanging upside down from the ceiling….I don't know who asked that but I hope for his sake that it wasn't a legitimate question or I swear to God I will find him and man would I do…something." Said Taka

"You'd throw salt at him?" asked Mob. That was Taka's go to for everything. He even threw salt at Teru a few times…though Mob still wasn't sure why. Teru had not been amused. Neither had Ritsu when Taka threw salt at him.

"Yes, yes I would. Salt cures all. There are no problems in this world that salt cannot solve." Said Taka. He was kidding, then, Mob could tell. She knew that there were some problems that salt could not solve…like this. She had no idea how she was supposed to get this opened without hurting it. It seemed kind of dumb, actually, trusting their entire future to this thin strip of latex. They were about to do something that they said at school they should have waited until they were adults to do.

Because it was a big responsibility.

Responsibility was not a word that Mob had ever associated with sex. It just looked like fun. A way to feel good and feel loved and make someone else feel good and make someone else feel loved. That was all sex was. But now she could see…if they made a mistake here then she would have a baby. Like the girl in that drama that mom made her watch that was Mob's age and had gotten pregnant…and Mob did not want to be pregnant. She could have a baby now, mom had given her a book about it after her first period, and she did not want to have one. She could also have an abortion, mom had told her about that too, but that was expensive and not covered by insurance and if she did get pregnant even if she didn't have a baby her mom would still know…and so would Taka's mom…and Taka's mom could be very scary sometimes when she got upset….

But they were going to be fine.

She was not going to talk herself out of this. She wanted to do this and she…they would be careful. If these didn't work then they wouldn't have sold them as something that worked. Mob would have put her faith in a pill before a thin strip of latex, though, but mom had said 'no' and then lectured her all day for even asking about that. Mob would have liked to have taken the medicine though even though it wasn't for people her age or people who weren't married, like mom said, because she had no idea how to even get this thing opened without hurting it and she didn't get how they could get hurt so easily if you could fit your whole arm in there, like they had demonstrated.

This was complicated.

Taka reached over and took it from her telekinetic grasp.

"I think that you're supposed to start at this corner. I think. They showed us in class, in my class' class, and I did sort of pay attention. I mean after I can only play Nintendogs for so long before I get bored." Said Taka. He peeled it from the corner and it didn't seem like it had gotten any rips or anything in it. That was good. She held it up to the light jut to be sure. Nope. No rips. Nothing.

This was happening.

She let him roll it down. She had messed up that part, back in health class, and he was a boy so he must have known more about this than she did. He must have….right? She knew about girls stuff and he knew about boy stuff. They knew about their own stuff and it was good that they did because Mob had no idea about boys or what to do with them and he knew and that was good and he was leading and it was good when he led.

And he did lead.

He was on top of her, now. He had rolled over and onto her and she had opened her legs again and this was happening! This was going to happen! He was kissing her now and she was kissing him back and this was…this was happening. She looked up. That was what she looked like.

That was what they looked like.

She had gotten up that morning thinking that it would be a normal day. Get up, go to school, hang out with Taka, and then go home and have dinner and do her homework and take a bath and go to bed. How could she go home after this? How could she just get back to her life after this? She was…supposed to go home and have dinner and go to bed and go to school like normal after all of this. How could she and Taka go back to normal after this? How could anyone? How could she and him just meet up before school or hang out at lunch or go ghost hunting after school after they had done…this?

She saw herself in the mirror. That would be the last time she saw herself while she was still a virgin.

Some people, mostly Tome, said that it wasn't a big thing. Having sex was just having sex and it didn't make you any different. Mob thought otherwise. You had to be different afterwards, you had to at least feel different, because you had another person inside of you. Not that she had him inside of her yet. She wondered if it would feel better than her hairbrush. She hoped that it would feel better than his fingers.

She wanted this.

"Ready?" asked Taka. His voice shook when he said that. She wondered what was going on his head. Was he just as worried as she was? He hadn't done this before either. Did boys get nervous about this too? Was it different for them because they had to be inside of someone? Did it take more trust to let someone inside of you or to be inside of someone? She didn't know. All she knew was that she was ready and she wanted this and she wanted this with him.

Because she loved him.

She nodded and then raised her hips. She let him lead. He did..sort of. He was off target. He got her in the inside of her thigh, at first, and she shifted her hips to get him to where he needed to be. Where she needed him to be. That just made him slide against the outside…which was good…so good…but not sex. But why did it count as sex only if he was inside of her? That had been…she had felt him against her and it had been good but…but that was not sex. She reached down to help him.

"Mob, it's ok. I'll….I'll figure it out." He said. Then he cursed and called himself an idiot. Then he tried again and that time he was way too low…and Mob knew that people did it like that but she did not want to. She had never wanted that and honestly it hurt a little and it just was not for her.

"Sorry! I wasn't trying to…I mean if you ever wanted to-" said Taka

"Can I please just show you? I know where it is." Said Mob. He sighed and nodded. A glob of sweat, his sweat, hit her on the forehead and it mixed with the sweat that was plastering her bangs to her head. It felt intimate, mixing sweat like that, and she wondered if having sex would be as intimate as sharing sweat….

She reached down and pushed him against her entrance.

It didn't hurt.

It felt weird. It felt weird inside of her. This whole thing felt weird. He was inside of her and she was inside of her and they were there, together, and he started to move and she looked up and saw herself, and saw them, and she saw what they were together…and it was….she could taste it. She could taste the word on her lips and she wanted more than anything else to say it. Her nails were digging into his back and he was crushing her and it didn't feel that good, physically, but emotionally it was more like a volcano. She was ready to burst, ready to explode, ready to just say it because it needed to be said. She wanted to say it. She knew it to be true and she knew that once she said it then they could never go back.

But they had done this.

And they could never go back.

And she could feel the word, taste it, and it was coming and she just had to see it because she was there and he was there and she loved him so much and she just had to say it-

"I love you! Shigeko I love you!" he said it first. He said it, went very rigid and cross eyed, and then slumped down on top of her. Mob was silent for a moment. He said it…and he called her by her real name…and he never did that.

She kissed him.

"I love you too, Arataka." Said Mob. Calling him by his name felt right. She wanted to call him by his name. She wanted to be called her name when they were…when they had…

They had sex.

"I love….you…..I just…wow. That was so…wow. You were so…wow. I…I love you Mob. I just…gimme a minute." Said Taka. He rolled off of her and got up. She wanted…she wanted him back. How could they be apart now when they had been so close together? For a moment she thinks that he's going but he's just throwing out the…is there supposed to be that much? She didn't think that then was the time to ask. She didn't even know how she was supposed to ask. So she didn't. She just watched as he fished around in his front pocket and…was he getting dressed? The thought is scary…but he isn't getting dressed. He's getting his lighter and his cigarettes from his front pocket and then he comes back to bed.

He hands her a cigarette.

"I hear that you're supposed to smoke after sex. I mean I hear it's supposed to be good…I mean I want to….you don't have to but I just thought that since it's the thing to do you might want to…I wasn't really thinking. I don't know. I just…I always thought about smoking after we….you don't have to." Said Taka. He reaches to take it back but she pulls it closer. She's never smoked before but this seems to have been the day for firsts.

Even though she knows that she's too young and smoking causes cancer and that if someone found out she would get in trouble…but she also wants to see why Taka likes this so much. She never understood that about Taka and she wants to understand him, especially after she had done all of that with him….

It wasn't good.

But she felt closer to him.

They sat together under the covers. She rested her head on his chest, he held had his arm around her, and she had carried over an ashtray with her powers. They smoked and cuddled and he, periodically kissed her on the top of her head. Sure it hadn't felt that good, and smoking was just….ick…but it had been with Taka and that was what mattered.

"Hey Mob…thanks. For all of this. I mean…for being with me and for sticking with me through everything and for….for loving me I guess." Said Taka

"I love you Taka, you don't have to thank me for that. I love you and…and thanks for saying it back." Said Mob. He tipped her head forwards and he kissed her. She tasted herself and cigarettes but she didn't mind.

She could never mind. She loved him.

"Don't thank me for saying it either…but I am sorry that I blindsided you like that…and with this. I should have just….told you what I wanted….but I guess that I just….yeah. I guess that I was afraid of scaring you off or something. But I am sorry-" said Taka

"No, no, don't be. You didn't lie to me…not really….because this place could have been haunted…and also I wanted this…too. I wanted this even if you did have to tell me we were looking for ghosts to et here. I love you, Taka, and I…I want to be with you like this all the time." Said Mob

"We could do this again…once my dad sends me more money I mean. There's no way your mom or your brother would leave us alone long enough to do this at my house and my mom keeps taking my door off the hinges so….we could do this again….in a while…" said Taka

"Half. I mean I could pay half…because I'm here too." Said Mob

"The price might even go down." Said Taka

"Why's that?" asked Mob

"Because I think that people might actually think that this place is haunted, now." Said Taka. He pulled the blanket down from here it had been trying to float away. Mob ducked her head down. She hadn't lost control of her powers that badly but she had still lost control a little bit. Maybe next time would be better. Maybe she would even get enough control that she could do this in her own home, her own room, on her own futon….

With the person she loved the most.


End file.
